Between Dark and Light
by Twiluster
Summary: Her entire life, Bella's mother had asked her the same question. "Do you understand the voices, yet?" It wasn't until her eighteenth year and after she met the mysterious and mesmerizing Edward Masen that she learned what that meant.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended.**

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"Hi, Mama," Bella bent down and kissed Renee's cheek. "How are you?" Her mother ignored her and continued to stare out the window.

"Do you understand the voices, yet?" Renee asked. It was the same first question every time Bella visited the institution. She didn't want to believe that her mother was insane, but she made it impossible to think otherwise.

Bella's heart ached, but she held back the tears that threatened to fall. Just once she longed for a normal conversation with her mother. "No, Mama."

"But you see them, don't you?" Renee looked over at her with pleading eyes. "You _must_ see them by now. It's almost your birthday."

Okay, this… this was something new, and the fact that her mom knew what time of year it was proved to Bella that she was in fact somewhat in her right mind. Her eighteenth birthday was next weekend. She reached out and touched Renee's arm. "Who, Mama?"

Bella's hand fell as Renee turned back to the window and brought her knees up to her chest and then clutched her arms around them and slowly rocked in the chair. "I can't say. I don't know. Leave me alone."

"Mama?" Bella asked as she reached her hand out again.

"Don't touch me!" Renee screamed and rocked faster. "Leave me alone! I didn't tell her anything! Leave my baby alone!"

Bella stumbled backwards in shock at her mother's outburst.

"I'm sorry, hon. You should probably go."

Bella nodded at Alice, her mother's favorite nurse, and then numbly made her way to her car where she broke down and sobbed heavily into her hands.


	2. Chapter 2

The next weekend, Bella held James's hand and followed him through his cousin's house. He had told her to stay close and she now realized why. There were people everywhere... drinking, dancing seductively; some were involved in heavy make-out sessions. Loud, hard rock music filled the air along with the stench of marijuana. This wasn't like any other party she had ever been to, and she suddenly regretted agreeing to come. She was far from prude, but unfamiliar, unpredictable situations made her nervous; she liked to be in control of everywhere she went and everything she did.

As they neared the kitchen, Bella silently cursed the back of her boyfriend's head. Obviously, he didn't know her at all. Or maybe he didn't care. She wasn't sure. She hadn't known him long, only a few weeks. But he had been acting like a prick lately and distancing himself more and more, and she didn't know why. Bella wasn't a jealous or clingy person. Wasn't that what guys wanted in a perfect girlfriend?

"How's it goin' man?"

"Not bad." James stopped and bumped fists with a tall, muscular guy. "Where's Edward?"

"Down below." The big guy stared down at Bella and grinned. "Who's this?"

"Bella meet Emmett."

"Hi," she said. Even if she wasn't comfortable, she had no reason to be rude.

Emmett startled Bella when he bent his head down and spoke in her ear.

"You smell fucking sweet. If he doesn't want you, come find me."

Bella gasped and stepped back, wide-eyed at his bold statement.

"You understood that?" Emmett asked with narrowed, curious eyes as James's grip tightened on her hand.

 _Of course I did_ , she thought. Though his strange question uneased her, Bella nodded. She had no reason to lie.

Emmett leaned down to her again.

"Tell me what I said."

As ridiculous as it seemed, she repeated in his ear what she had heard him say.

Emmett then stood tall and looked over at James.

"I told you," James said with a smirk.

The two shared a brief, silent exchange before James pulled Bella behind him down a long hallway. As they walked, Bella looked back once but Emmett was gone.

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 _ ***waves* to those who have found my little story already. Thank you so much for reading and giving it a chance.**_

 _ **If you want, you can find me on Twitter and Tumblr (pssst... this is NSFW) under the same name. They're new accounts and just getting started.**_


	3. Chapter 3

After James entered a code, he opened the basement door and gestured for Bella to go ahead of him. She took one step inside and then stopped. Her stomach suddenly filled with what felt like a million butterflies.

"I don't think I want to go down there, James."

He frowned at her and moved inside as he closed the door behind him.

"Why not?"

She whispered, "I'm scared."

He laughed at her. "Of what?"

Bella didn't truly know but in her gut she felt something wasn't right.

"Basements," she lied. "I'm scared of basements."

"Come on, it's just a room. I want you to meet my cousin."

"Who else is down there?"

James huffed and then moved past her and down a few steps. Then he leaned over the railing before he looked back up to her. "There's like twenty other people."

From where she stood, Bella could tell there were others; she saw their shadows. To know that helped enough to make her feet move, but the closer she got to the bottom, the more her anxiety rose. When she reached the floor, she blew out a small sigh of relief. From there, she realized James hadn't lied to her; there actually were at least that many people doing much of the same as the ones upstairs. The music was different, though; the beat was slower, heavier, and darker.

James grabbed her hand and linked their fingers as he pulled her forward. "Where's Edward?" he asked a tall, pretty blonde girl about their age.

She pointed toward another section of the large room. "Pool table."

Along the way, several people uttered passing 'hellos' to James. He seemed to know everyone. Bella wondered why he had never introduced her to his friends before now. She had thought he was a loner. The tally of questions she planned to ask him grew by the minute, as did her frustration.

James finally came to a full stop and released her hand. When Bella looked up and into familiar eyes, her stomach dropped to the floor; her heart skipped a beat and then began to race.

For the last month, she'd had inexplicable, lustful dreams about a total stranger. In those dreams, she had felt and acted like another person; her inhibitions freed. _How is this possible?_ She was sure they had never met in real life. But now, he stood in front of her wearing the same devilish smirk that turned her insides to mush every single time.

"Bella, this is my cousin... Edward."

Bella felt faint as Edward reached out to her. Of its own volition, her arm reacted and she placed her hand in his. She bit her lip to keep from crying out as a jolt of pleasure surged through her body. As if he knew, he gently jerked her toward him and bent his head down to her ear.

"Happy Birthday, little lamb."


	4. Chapter 4

"Thank you," Bella whispered and leaned into him, as if she was powerless under his touch. Then, like a beacon of reason, her mother's words came to light in her mind. She suddenly wondered how Edward knew it was her birthday; she hadn't even told James. Something else was definitely at play here. Inside she was torn between wanting to stay and escape.

"You're trembling." Edward hands gently rubbed up and down her arms in a soothing manner; tingles raced through her limbs with each pass. "You're not supposed to be afraid of me." He frowned and stared deeper into her eyes, as if perplexed. "Are you afraid?"

Bella didn't fear for her life, she felt oddly safe with Edward. It was that and all the things that didn't add up that made her scared. She turned to ask James if they could leave, but he was gone so she looked back to Edward. "Yes. I am." Her voice shook, but she pressed on. "Please let me go."

To her surprise, Edward released her arms and then firmly cupped her jaw with his soft, warm hands. He tilted her head so that she had no choice but to face him. "Do not fear me, Bella," he whispered. "Most importantly, do _not_ make the choice before you know the truth."

"What truth?" she asked more confused than before. "What choice?"

He dropped his hands. Her skin suddenly felt cold, her body abandoned. "Come with me," he said as he held his hand out to her. "I'll explain everything, but not here. We must go somewhere private."

Bella's fingers twitched with longing to do as he requested, but her gut instinct said otherwise and so she stepped back.

"Don't do it Bella," Edward commanded as if he had read her mind and knew she wanted to run. He inched closer and leaned down to her ear. "You've clearly understood every word I've spoken to you, yet my first language is centuries old."

" _Do you understand the voices, yet?"_

Bella gasped yet stayed rooted in place when her mother's question came to her. She, once again, turned to find James. She scanned every corner she could see, but he was nowhere in sight. And then she felt Edward behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned down to her ear.

"Do you want to end up like her?"

"Who?" Bella whispered but she knew who he meant, even if she didn't understand how.

"Your mother."

Bella struggled to free herself from his grasp but it was useless. He was stronger than her.

"Bella, stop it," he hissed in her ear before his tone softened. "You're vulnerable right now - a lovely, innocent lamb for the taking. If you decide without knowledge, you'll be alone and unprotected from the darkness that lurks about."

 _He's insane_ , Bella thought. Yet, it couldn't be denied how Edward made her feel in both dreams and reality. _Maybe I'm the crazy one._ She felt she owed it to herself to find out this truth he spoke about earlier, and she was curious about this 'darkness' he mentioned.

Bella nodded her head. "Okay," she whispered and linked her hands over his. "Tell me what I need to know."


	5. Chapter 5

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Bella's heart pounded in her chest as she followed Edward out of the basement, through the crowded party, and up the stairs to a large, third-floor master suite decorated in elegant masculinity with its rich wood furnishings and mostly dark gray walls. The lone exception to the left of the bed appeared to be covered in a blood-red, damask wallpaper. It was odd yet beautiful. The painting that hung above the bed and its swirls of colors tied everything together perfectly.

"Do you like it?" Edward asked stepping up behind her as he gripped her hips.

"What?"

"The room."

"It's beautiful."

She whimpered when he kissed just below her ear.

"You're beautiful." He trailed soft kisses down her neck, over her shoulder, and back up while his large hands kneaded her sides. "Exquisite." His nose skimmed the sensitive flesh of her jawline. "And so fucking sweet."

Bella leaned against his chest, quickly losing herself under his grasp. Just enough reality made her come back to her senses and step away.

"We came here to talk. Remember?" she reminded him as she turned around.

"Of course." He licked his bottom lip as he trailed a finger along her exposed collarbone. "It's just that I've waited so long for you. You're hard to resist."

Bella nearly fell as her knees weakened from his sultry tone - the very same one he had used in the dreams she'd had about him. She wanted to give in but she wanted answers, too, so she shook her head and then sat down on the velvet-covered sofa by the window.

"You have a lot to explain." _First_ , she almost added. "You can start by telling me how I can understand your age-old language when I've only taken one semester of Spanish in my entire life."

Edward sat down in the chair across from but angled toward her and then leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and stared into her eyes. "Simply put…" he said as his lips curled into a smirk, "you understand because you were created for me."

Bella blushed at his words because when she had dreamed about him that's exactly how she felt. Like they'd been made for each other.

"Put it not so simply, Edward."

"I'll tell you if you promise to listen to all I have to say before you make a final decision."

 _About what?_ she frustratingly wondered. "I promise."

He slowly sat back and rested both arms on the sides of the chair while he thoughtfully studied her. "For all of existence, my descendants have depended upon human females as mates. It's the only way we're able to have children. I could fuck thousands of women but only be able to impregnate my chosen. Our enemies don't like that, claiming that we're evil when it's _their_ efforts that have attempted to wipe out our kind. Not the other way around. While under a guardian's protection, bondable females are oblivious to us. Unprotected ones are susceptible to our abilities just before they turn eighteen."

"Like visiting people in dreams?" Bella whispered as she flushed from head to toe.

Edward nodded with a sly grin. "Yeah, like that."

"So, I'm one of those bondable females?"

"Yes."

"And I'm supposed to be your mate. That's how I can understand you."

Bella gulped when something flickered in Edward's eyes. "No. You _are_ mine. And yes, you've been able to understand since you met James because it was your time."

"Then why didn't _you_ seek me out in person? Why did James pretend to be my boyfriend?"

His posture stiffened and his fingertips gripped the chair arms. "He what?" he growled.

Edward's sudden movement forward to the end of his seat startled her. She wished she had worded that differently.

"I… I thought… I mean-"

"Did James touch you?"

She shrank under his scrutiny. "He held my hand."

"His job was to keep a watchful eye and bring you to me when the time came, nothing more. What else did he do?"

"Nothing." Bella looked down away from Edward's sneer. James had avoided all of her advancements. Obviously, he hadn't report everything back to his cousin. "That was all." A beat passed before she asked the next question that came to mind. "Was my mother a bondable female?"

"No." His answer surprised her. "She was merely a vessel." Edward then stood, walked over, and sat down next to her, leaving no room between them. He took her hand in his and linked their fingers. "I meant it when I said you were created for me, Bella."

"How is that possible?"

"Your father was a powerful male." Edward blew out a ragged breath. "He had an extremely rare ability."

She frowned. "Charlie?"

He shook his head. "Charles Swan wasn't your biological father. He was your guardian."


End file.
